Cheap vs. Expensive Seed

Question

Will birds like Cheap or Expensive Bird Seed better?

Hypothesis

I believe that the birds will go for the expensive bird seed because my neighbors have lots feeders and they buy really expensive seed. ive observed that there's a huge clump of birds every morning eating the seed. My other neighbor buys some cheap bird seed and there aren't as many birds at her feeder than my other neighbor. I think the birds like the expensive seed more because the type of seed and the flavor.

Research Summary

For the past couple years have been observing the birds in my area both because it relaxed me and I had to do a similar project in fourth grade. I noticed many cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, finches, sparrows, Juncos, and doves. I researched on ebird and did the same thing but in 4 minuets and found some sittings with list with the same kinds of birds I have seen. after confirming that I researched what kind of seed the birds liked and all of them came up to like the kind of bird seed i got in the expensive bag,Same with the cheap seed but a few less birds. Since I know the birds in my area all like the kind of seed in the Expensive bag and that it has a few more birds attracted to the food than the cheap seed I do think the birds will go to the expensive bird seed.

Materials and Methods

• two yellow bird feeders
• Measuring by inches
• Have two Bird seeds (expensive and cheap)
• Wire for hanging the feeders up
• Camera for taking pictures of the birds eating at the feeder and how much was eaten
• chart of the birds
• chart of the food that's eaten
• weather chart

I have two yellow bird feeders and they are placed 4 feet away from each other. I have two types of bird seed expensive and cheap. The expensive has Milo, white Millet, Cracked Corn, Black oil Sunflower Seed, striped sunflower seed, peanut kernels, nyjer seed, and safflower seed. The cheap Seed has Cracked Corn, Milo, Oil Sunflower, Wheat, Calcium Carbonate, and White Millet. When I fill one feeder I will fill the other so that it won't affect my data. I'm not sure if it will make a difference but I have two dogs and they like to bark so it might affect my Data. I am Measuring in Inches and I've labeled inches on the feeders. I will be collecting data daily starting 9/23/15.

Independent Variable:

Is the expensive and cheap bird seed

Dependent Variable:

is the amount of food they eat each day

Control Variables:

is the bird feeder, the amount of bird seed, the distance between the feeders

Expensive seed:

Observations of Expensive feeder:

There wasn't much activity with this feeder. I thought that I would have to be refilling this feeder all the time but I was wrong. Every morning when I woke up around 6:50 I would sit outside and watch the bird go to the expensive feeder than switch to the cheap seed. When I would come home from soccer, there were still no activity at the expensive feeder.

Cheap seed:

Observations of cheap seed:

Always active at this feeder. As I said I noticed birds going to the expensive seed but then making a sudden switch to the cheap seed. I noticed in Zack's hypothesis said "I think birds would like cheap bird seed better than expensive bird seed because it's like McDonald to a bird. It might be more flavorful and less healthy for the bird." Which i found was true with my experiment. Every morning there would be a huge huddle of birds around the feeder like, cardinals, blue jays, finches, juncos, and so many other birds that I wasn't expecting to see.

Data chart:

Day	Weather	Seed	Amount Eaten in Inches	Birds seen
1	Rain,chilly	n/a
2	Rain,chilly	n/a
3	Rain,chilly	n/a
4	Rain	n/a
5	Cloudy	n/a
6	Rain	n/a
7	Rain,chilly	n/a
8	Rain,chilly	n/a
9	Rain	n/a
10	Rain	n/a
11	Rain	expensive	.5	cardinals,blue jays,finches
12	Rain	n/a
13	Cloudy/rainy/sunny	n/a
14	Sunny	n/a
15	Sunny	n/a
16	Sunny	n/a
17	Sunny	expensive,cheap	1.5, 1.5	cardinals,blue jays,finches,juncos,etc
18	Sunny	n/a
19	Sunny	cheap	2.5	cardinals,blue jays,finches,juncos,etc
20	Sunny	cheap	1	cardinals,blue jays
21	Sunny	cheap	2	Couldn't get a close look
22	Sunny	cheap	.5	Juncos, finches, for some reason a dove
23	Sunny	cheap	3.5	Finches,cardinals,blue jays, Not sure why, 3 HB
24	sunny	cheap	1.5	Cardinals, Blue Jays, finches

Final Data:

Final Results:

I for sure thought the birds would go for the expensive seed, because there was more of a variety of seeds. Due to my observations and data.... I was wrong. I never really thought of the cheap as junk food for them. I researched what birds lived in my area, once i found the birds that lived in my area I researched what kind of seed they like best. All the birds in my area liked all the kinds of seed in my expensive seed. Not all the birds in my area liked the cheap seed but the ones that did kept coming back with bigger groups of their kind. My data does not support my hypothesis. The expensive seed has lots more seed than the cheap but maybe not as much flavor. There weren't any problems with my experiment besides the fact that it wouldn't stop raining for the first week. My alternate hypothesis would be: I believe that the birds will like the expensive seed more because there is more of a variety of seed than the cheap seed.

Bibliography

"View and Explore Data." EBird || Your Destination for Birding on the Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.